Locking Tuners

[pjr114]

Hi,

I have three G&L USA guitars and I've decided to replace the tuners with locking tuners. Two have G&L standard tuners, a Bluesboy 90 and a Z-3, so I'm assuming that's an easy swap using the G&L locking tuners on its web site.

The third guitar is a Fallout and after looking up my stat sheet I find that it has Sperzel tuners. Does this mean I have to go with Sperzel locking tuners? Or will G&L's do the job. If it's Sperzel, how do I determine which ones to buy. I see a set on Stew Mac for in-line Sperzel locking tuners and I'm wondering if these are the ones.

Thanks,
pjr

[yowhatsshakin]

Hi,

I have three G&L USA guitars and I've decided to replace the tuners with locking tuners. Two have G&L standard tuners, a Bluesboy 90 and a Z-3, so I'm assuming that's an easy swap using the G&L locking tuners on its web site.

The third guitar is a Fallout and after looking up my stat sheet I find that it has Sperzel tuners. Does this mean I have to go with Sperzel locking tuners? Or will G&L's do the job. If it's Sperzel, how do I determine which ones to buy. I see a set on Stew Mac for in-line Sperzel locking tuners and I'm wondering if these are the ones.

Thanks,
pjr

Hey pjr,

The restrictive factor is the number and position of location pins on these tuners. They differ slightly between brands but not between locking and non-locking tuners of the same brand. So yes, stick to G&L Locking tuners for your US made Bluesboy 90 and Z-3, and use Sperzels for the Fallout. The latter should have a matte grey finish and have "Sperzel" engraved on the casing of the tuning machine. You can find more on tuning machines used by G&L throughout time here.

- Jos

[Craig]

Hi,

I have three G&L USA guitars and I've decided to replace the tuners with locking tuners. Two have G&L standard tuners, a Bluesboy 90 and a Z-3, so I'm assuming that's an easy swap using the G&L locking tuners on its web site.

The third guitar is a Fallout and after looking up my stat sheet I find that it has Sperzel tuners. Does this mean I have to go with Sperzel locking tuners? Or will G&L's do the job. If it's Sperzel, how do I determine which ones to buy. I see a set on Stew Mac for in-line Sperzel locking tuners and I'm wondering if these are the ones.

Thanks,
pjr

Also, see our post here in the G&L Knowledgebase: What tuners are used on G&L guitars (USA models)?.

Hope this helps.

[dhgleaves]

Hi,

I have three G&L USA guitars and I've decided to replace the tuners with locking tuners. Two have G&L standard tuners, a Bluesboy 90 and a Z-3, so I'm assuming that's an easy swap using the G&L locking tuners on its web site.

The third guitar is a Fallout and after looking up my stat sheet I find that it has Sperzel tuners. Does this mean I have to go with Sperzel locking tuners? Or will G&L's do the job. If it's Sperzel, how do I determine which ones to buy. I see a set on Stew Mac for in-line Sperzel locking tuners and I'm wondering if these are the ones.

Thanks,
pjr

On Sperzels, the mounting pin is always in the same place so, if they have one, various sets should be interchangeable. Ideally you would want to get 6 inline, but they are actually reversible, so a set of 3 + 3 could be turned into 6 inline. However, they also have an "ez-mount" system that doesn't have a mounting pin. If I was you, I would remove one of the existing tuners to see what's underneath. If it has a mounting pin, any Sperzel tuner would fit it. If it happens to have the ez-mount system and there isn't already a hole there, you would either need to get some of the same or you would need to drill a hole (and the location of the hole is different for Sperzel versus G&L/Schaller tuners). The only other thing to consider is that some of the 6 inline type are staggered and some are all of the same height. Either would work but, if you get staggered, you don't need string trees.

Oh, and one other option that wouldn't require any modification of the guitar (i.e., drilling) would be Hipshot locking tuners with the universal mounting plate.

David

[pjr114]

Thanks to all for the excellent advice.

[dhgleaves]

Hi,

I have three G&L USA guitars and I've decided to replace the tuners with locking tuners. Two have G&L standard tuners, a Bluesboy 90 and a Z-3, so I'm assuming that's an easy swap using the G&L locking tuners on its web site.

The third guitar is a Fallout and after looking up my stat sheet I find that it has Sperzel tuners. Does this mean I have to go with Sperzel locking tuners? Or will G&L's do the job. If it's Sperzel, how do I determine which ones to buy. I see a set on Stew Mac for in-line Sperzel locking tuners and I'm wondering if these are the ones.

Thanks,
pjr

Hey pjr,

The restrictive factor is the number and position of location pins on these tuners. They differ slightly between brands but not between locking and non-locking tuners of the same brand. So yes, stick to G&L Locking tuners for your US made Bluesboy 90 and Z-3, and use Sperzels for the Fallout. The latter should have a matte grey finish and have "Sperzel" engraved on the casing of the tuning machine. You can find more on tuning machines used by G&L throughout time here.

- Jos

Hi Jos. Your resource on tuners is helpful, and I realised that I apparently didn't completely understand the difference between open and closed tuners. What you called Schaller Open but with a cover, I would have called closed because they had the cover, thus the gears were not "open". I guess that's wrong though. So just a general question. Is there any advantage of open tuners? I ended up with a set of Hipshot open locking tuners. I was considering putting them on one of my G&Ls but just based on appearance, I don't really like the way they look. However, I did just acquire an older SB-1 bass, and it definitely has open tuners on it, without the covers, so I assume there must be some benefits to using them. Thanks. David

p.s., you currently have all of those G&L guitars in your collection?

[yowhatsshakin]

Hey David,

So just a general question. Is there any advantage of open tuners? I ended up with a set of Hipshot open locking tuners.

The only advantage I can think of is you don't need to lubricate closed tuners ever again. But bear in mind that the quality of a tuning machine is not decided by that at all. Factors like mechanical tolerances and especially gear ratio between worm wheel and stem are much more important. Nowadays there are many high quality open tuners available ranging from Waverly's to Hip-Shot to whatever Paul Reed Smith is using on many of his high-end guitars. They seem to make a resurgence. I think because they just look cool.

p.s., you currently have all of those G&L guitars in your collection?

Yes. Although I make references to guitars I know about but don't own throughout the website, only those in my possession show up in the index.

- Jos

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Hi,

Oh, and one other option that wouldn't require any modification of the guitar (i.e., drilling) would be Hipshot locking tuners with the universal mounting plate.

David

This is the route I'm going on my new Doheny (the 6GLOs specifically). I don't really feel the need for locking too much w/ the safety posts on the stock non-locking tuners but the ratio is a bit low for me. I've used these tuners on a few of my own builds previously and the plate mounting works great and I couldn't be happier w/ the action on them. They're pretty inexpensive too...

[pjr114]

Hi everyone,

So I made the switch on all three and it went quite smoothly. The G&L locking tuners were a breeze on the Bluesboy 90 and Z-3. The Sperzel switch on the Fallout was slightly more taxing as I didn't realize the nut was not 10mm as the G&Ls were, but I worked around it without too much of a problem. Also switched out a Strat with Fender locking tuners and that went very well, very straight forward.

Locking tuners are certainly not a necessity but I like them. Changing strings is quick, easy and accurate. I have them on 10 guitars now. I wanted to also change them on a ES-339 and MIM Tele but those have vintage tuners and it's not as straight-forward on which tuners will do the job. The vintage tuners seem a little more involved. For now the Tele has slotted vintage and those are very easy to change strings on, and the 339 is not much of problem either.

pjr

[dhgleaves]

Hi everyone,

So I made the switch on all three and it went quite smoothly. The G&L locking tuners were a breeze on the Bluesboy 90 and Z-3. The Sperzel switch on the Fallout was slightly more taxing as I didn't realize the nut was not 10mm as the G&Ls were, but I worked around it without too much of a problem. Also switched out a Strat with Fender locking tuners and that went very well, very straight forward.

Locking tuners are certainly not a necessity but I like them. Changing strings is quick, easy and accurate. I have them on 10 guitars now. I wanted to also change them on a ES-339 and MIM Tele but those have vintage tuners and it's not as straight-forward on which tuners will do the job. The vintage tuners seem a little more involved. For now the Tele has slotted vintage and those are very easy to change strings on, and the 339 is not much of problem either.

pjr

Regarding your tele, on mine, I switched them out with Fender Gotoh SD91 Vintage Style Locking Guitar Tuners 007-2272-000. They were a drop in replacement and even look the same, but just have a locking mechanism (although it's different from the kind that you just bought).

[pjr114]

Yes, I've read the Gotoh SD-91s are a drop-in for a MIM, including the Baha. They also make a SD-91 version that appears to be a drop-in and has a a wheel mechanism.